This invention relates to monitoring the provision of conditioned air to one or more locations using information gathered from the locations.
The provision of conditioned air to one or more locations has heretofore depended on gathering information such as sensed temperature and preferred temperature settings from these locations. This information is typically provided by thermostats in the locations. This information is used to define demands on one or more HVAC systems providing conditioned air to the locations.
The HVAC system may from time to time experience a particularly heavy demand being placed upon it for heating or cooling a given location. It would be preferable to have logic associated with the control of the HVAC system that would examine any excessively heavy demand for heating or cooling to determine whether any action should be taken to alleviate or otherwise address the demand for the particular location.
The above may be particularly true in a system that does not include a typical thermostat having a sensed temperature that can be read to determine whether any progress is being made as to raising or lowering the overall temperature in the location. This would be true of the comfort control system set forth in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/053,954, filed on Dec. 20, 2001. This system allows occupants in a given location to express their feeling as to level of comfort by entering levels of comfort into data entry devices. The system does not directly measure the progress made by one or more HVAC systems in meeting the overall demand other than to note whether the occupants continue to enter levels of comfort not being met by the conditioned air being provided to the location. It would be preferable if there were a means within such a system to at least check to see whether there were any problem with the flow of conditioned air to the particular location.